New information is often emphasized as a basis of effective and scientifically sound environmental policy and management. However, outdated or incorrect information is not automatically nor instantly replaced by new insights. This article focuses on the various ways environmental information can be unintentionally left with insufficient attention or purposefully neglected. Energy-related emissions caused by road traffic in Finland are used as an illustrative example and light pollution caused by artificial lighting is identified as an emerging issue that has gained especially low recognition in the environmental agenda. Four different reasons for this lack of recognition are discussed: recognized unawareness, false awareness, deliberate unawareness and concealed awareness. Paying attention to light pollution is important because of various ecological, socio-cultural and economic effects but also because implementing measures aimed for reducing light pollution create possibilities for alleviating other social and environmental problems in transport and land use policies.

Global economic and population growth increase the extent and intensity of artificial night lighting. From an ecological perspective, this is light pollution, which causes changes in reproductive physiology, migration and foraging of many species and ultimately leads to loss of biodiversity. Some seabirds are intimately linked with the light features of their environments because they are nocturnally active. We report light-induced groundings of Coryâ€™s shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) during a 2-year study (2008 and 2009) in SÃ£o Miguel Island, in the Azores archipelago, and investigate the spatial correlation of locations of grounded birds with an annual composite of remotely sensed stable lights. Results indicate that 16.7% of fledglings are attracted to lights. The exposure of shearwater colonies in the study area to artificial night lighting is low overall. Four colonies account for 87% of the grounded birds. The distance each bird was found from the closest colony was best explained by the ratio of the satellite-measured light levels at the grounding spot to the light levels at the assigned colony of origin. These results demonstrate that satellite-observed nighttime lights are sufficient to assess risk to marine birds at the scale of oceanic islands and indicate their utility for monitoring the effectiveness of programs to manage lighting to reduce risk for these species and conducting global assessments of species vulnerability. To minimize the impact on Coryâ€™s shearwater and other marine birds, we recommend measures such as reduction and control of lighting intensity near colony locations, while continuing and re-enforcing rescue campaigns.

The secretive breeding behaviour of petrels makes monitoring their breeding populations challenging. To assess population trends of Cory's Shearwater Calonectris diomedea, Bulwer's Petrel Bulweria bulwerii and Macaronesian Shearwater Puffinus baroli in Tenerife from 1990 to 2010, we used data from rescue campaigns that aim to reduce the mortality of fledgling petrels attracted to artificial lights as proxies for trends in breeding population size. Despite increases in human population size and light pollution, the number of rescued fledglings of Cory's Shearwater and Bulwer's Petrel increased and remained stable, respectively, whereas numbers of rescued Macaronesian Shearwaters sharply declined. In the absence of more accurate population estimates, these results suggest a worrying decline in the Macaronesian Shearwater's breeding population.

Data sensed by the US Air Force Defence Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) during the years 2000 and 2001 in Brazil were tested as a tool to monitor reduction of nocturnal lighting. This particular timing was examined as the Brazilian population and industry were forced to reduce electric power consumption by 20% during 2001, in relation to 2000, for a period of several months, starting officially on 1 June 2001. Large urban agglomerates were compelled to switch off city lights by at least the same amount. The Distrito Federal (DF), including the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, was one of the primary areas where the government actively sought electric power consumption reductions. Using the DF as a study case, we demonstrate that the mean grey levels derived from averaging DMSP-OLS data acquired over urban centres appear to be a useful index to monitor relative oscillations in energy consumption.

Astronomers consider light pollution to be a growing problem, however few studies have addressed potential effects of light pollution on wildlife. Sunlight is believed to initiate song in many bird species. If light initiates song, then light pollution may be influencing avian song behavior at a population level. This hypothesis predicts that birds breeding in areas with large amounts of artificial light will begin singing earlier in the day than birds in areas with little artificial light. Birds in highly illuminated areas might begin singing earlier than did birds in those same areas in previous years when artificial light levels were known to be, or were presumably, lower. Also, birds should begin singing earlier within a site on brightly lit nights. In 2002 and 2003 I documented initiation of morning song by breeding American Robins (Turdus migratorius) in areas with differing intensity of artificial nocturnal light. I compared my observations among sites and against historical studies. Robin populations in areas with large amounts of artificial light frequently began their morning chorus during true night. Chorus initiation time, relative to civil twilight, was positively correlated with amount of artificial light present during true night. Robin choruses in areas with little, or presumably little, artificial light have almost never begun during true night, instead appearing to track the onset of civil twilight. Proliferation of artificial nocturnal light may be strongly affecting singing behavior of American Robins at a population level.